Constantia Insurance

On the 1^st of March 2022 a team of 16 Constantia volunteers joined forces with the Ethembeni Outreach programme to serve a local community in Kromdraai. Kromdraai, is a small community west of Ruimsig close to Krugersdorp in Johannesburg, with approximately 400 families and 500 pre and primary school children. On this day we saw our vision of making a future possible, come alive for hundreds of community members as we could enable another day of nourishment, interaction, and learning.

Constantia has been supporting this community since 2019, and with our donations over the years, Ethembeni has managed to start and maintain (even during COVID), a feeding station coupled with an existing early childhood development programme (ECD) in association with Lego SA. 

Ethembeni is a non-profit organisation (NPO), dedicated to community upliftment through school feeding programs, emotional and spiritual support, community care and skills development. The NPO has two food processing facilities in Gauteng and Mpumalanga and currently provide more than 1.2 million meals per annum in Gauteng alone. Most of the feeding schemes are at schools and crèches connected to informal settlements. At most of the schools, this meal – a warm and nutritious cup of soup served with bread – is the only meal of the day for more than 90% of the children.

Months of planning preparation finally came together during our outreach day as our Constantialites took up the challenge to leave their laptops at home, get their hands dirty and assist with a successful day of food preparation, food processing, loading of trucks, feeding the community and spending time with the students at the Matla Comined School. We had an overwhelming response from our staff wanting to volunteer on the day and their excitement was not in vain, as during the interaction with the community in the day, the excitement and gratitude was obvious, and the overall atmosphere of the day was joyous and beyond what we ever imagined. With the weeks leading up to the event Constantia staff helped to prepare some winter-warmer bags for the children which contained a fleezy blanket, a beanie and a pair of gloves.

The team all met up at the Constantia Offices and travelled to the Ethemebeni food processing centre in Little Falls. Here, the team got an introduction to what Ehemebeni is all about, meet up with all the volunteers from the Christian Falls Christian Centre, and had a chance to help prepare and package some of the food to be distributed in the community later in the day. It was a beautiful sunshine day in Johannesburg and although the team were sweating, there were smiles and laughter all around.

From there, the teams drove to the Kromdraai community centre, accompanied by a truck full of food parcels. As we arrived, elders from the community were already waiting, and even in the heat of the day children came running with their mugs and bowls, excited to receive something to eat. The warm welcome from the staff and community along with the smell of freshly cooked soup that filled the air, made it a perfect welcome. The team spent some time chatting to members of the community and ensuring the elders and little ones had enough to eat. 

Next up was an interactive learning session with the Grade 4’s and Grade 3’s at the Matla Combined School. During this session trained facilitators make use of the generous donations by LEGO SA, to teach children fundamental values and life skills through means of a story and then using the blocks to exercise motor and non-motor skills.

From processing carrots, slicing bread, offloading trucks, handing out vegetable parcels, serving soup and bread, chatting to community members, and partaking in playtime with the children, our Constantia staff were fully engaged and trying to lend a hand wherever possible. It was hard work, but the laughter of the children and the smiles of the volunteers who assisted in these activities made it all worth it.

The most common sentiment shared by all on the day was gratitude and humility, and how often we forget to be grateful for what we have and reach out to others to be the change we wish to see in our country.

The head of the Ethembeni outreach programme, Frank Weitz, noted that it was a humanitarian effort that completely changed his view on life. “During COVID times we could reach people in communities like Kromdraai, that the rest of world forgot about. We could ensure these people got a meal every day and that the children were fed. We continue to learn about humanity and for as long Ethembeni can, we will not drop the ball on these communities that depend on us.”

Thank you to every Constantialite who played a role in this day and for truly being the difference, thank you to Ethembeni for allowing us to be a part of your team on the day and experience the great work that you do, collectively we are making a tangible difference in our communities.